BRAGGING BERNIE HITS N.H.
Talks big game on fundraising, drawing crowds
A pumped-up, confident Bernie Sanders shed his underdog skin, bragging about his ability to raise money and draw a crowd in a speech to cheering throngs packed into a University of New Hampshire gymnasium last night, capping a whirlwind four-stop day in the Granite State.
“You may not know this, but what you are a part of tonight is the largest turnout for any presidential candidate in New Hampshire,” Sanders told the crowd to explosive cheers. “It sounds to me like you are ready to transform America.”
Sanders, who is leading Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in several polls of New Hampshire and Iowa voters, made four stops — including an impromptu one — in New Hampshire yesterday.
The Sanders campaign said more than 3,000 attended yesterday’s rally, a large contingent of them students. The turnout dwarfed the roughly 600 people Clinton drew to the same venue Friday morning to an open event. Clinton has been tailoring her New Hampshire appearances to smaller groups this campaign.
Sanders — who supports public funding of election campaigns — also boasted that despite shunning super PACs, he is still drawing an average campaign donation of $31.20, which he claimed is more than any other candidate.
The U.S. senator from Vermont took a swipe at pundits, who called his campaign “fringe” when he launched it in April.
“Who in America is prepared to be involved in a political revolution? What a crazy idea,” Sanders said.
“Well, it turns out that all over this country, people are.”
Supporters ate up Sanders’ calls to raise the minimum wage to $15 — he calls the current $7.25 “starvation wages” — and to break up big banks, address racial and gender inequality, make public universities tuition free and institute a single-payer universal health care system.
“He’s got the passion and he’s got the focus and he’s creating something,” said Stephen Stofanak, 70, of Maine, a former Republican. “I see his energy just continuing to grow, especially as the groups, the audiences continue to grow.”
Ian Kochevar, of Durham, N.H., said, “I’ll acknowledge openly, I’m someone who sees him very much as sort of on the outside, as the fringe, as more openly sort of radical. But I think after seeing him speak, after doing a little more reading and research, I think it’s a very winnable election.”